Catharine Ward Thompson is Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the OPENspace research centre. Her research focuses on what hinders or enables access outdoors for different groups, most notably older people, children and teenagers. She is interested in the links between ‘environment’ and ‘behaviour’ and in the concept of the salutogenic place. Her work looks at how outdoor spaces can support human health, wellbeing and quality of life, rather than focusing on factors which cause ill health and disease. Catharine was the Director of the ten-year, EPSRC-funded study, Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors (I’DGO), and is currently the Principal Investigator of the £1.6m, multidisciplinary study on pedestrian mobility for older people, Mobility, Mood and Place (MMP).